Tate ud. too busy and too accurate. And I don't think Witherspoon is landing his looping right hand on this guy. I like the left hand of Tate to be the biggest issue in the fight.
Tate on a comfortable decision. Too many people think of Tate post-Weaver. He was damaged goods by then. He was a busy fighter for a big fella and I see him outworking Tim, who had a tendency of lagging behind waiting for the big overhand right to come into play.
Watching him on film, Tate seems like he had all the potential to become a formidable champion and a potential rival to Larry Holmes, but after being knocked out badly by Mike Weaver his career and his personal life went on an irreparable tailspin. He had a great knockout over Bernardo Mercado and his 1979 campaign was brilliant. Although he would go on to have drug issues and obesity struggles later in life, at his peak he was said to be exceptionally disciplined in training, such that his trainer jokingly compared him to a robot. A guy with ring iq, reach, athleticism, and stamina sounds like a nightmare for 'Spoon'. We can rule out a Witherspoon knockout, but I would pick Tate.
Some very good analysis on this fight here, I like Tate too for the reasons given . I think John takes a UD fairly wide
IDK, Tate was very dood, but not the quickest guy for sure. Tim did good with Holmes. That Tim I would think would dec. or KO Tate
Put a peak, motivated Tim in Weaver's place and he could quite possibly be the one to send Big John's career into a tailspin. I think Tim was tough enough, durable enough. I think he was canny enough to make the adjustments needed as the fight evolved and punched with enough power to stop John - probably not with a Weaver like out-of-the-blue one shot ko, more of a wearing down type of stoppage - particularly over 15 rounds.
Tate actually became a very good professional until his 15th round brutal KO loss to Mike Weaver- had it been 12 rounds Tate would have won a UD had it been 14 rounds Tate would have won.....unfortunately that Brutal KO ruined Tate - both Tate and Holmes came back from some Bad KO's and losses in the amateurs - Tate by Teofilo in 1 round - Holmes by Nick Wells x2 and then Duane Bobick DQ after getting dropped - Bobick after beating Teofilo also got devastatingly KO'd by Teofilo Stevenson - Witherspoon was an underachiever - he had talent and some power but so did Coetzee and others Tate beat- Im thinking Tate (pre- Weaver) wins a UD Mike Tyson was a fresh breath into the heavyweights in the 80's because he tried to fight everyone and KO'd the Tubbs- Thomas-Berbick- Spinks- Carl Williams- Biggs- Bruno - Holmes and even dominated the defensively minded Tucker- Bone Clutcher Smith - Tyson walked through most of the heavyweights struggling with each other or avoiding each other - Shame he lost Cus and Rooney and gained King who fed the bad wolf in Mike instead of the good wolf that Cus created
The pre Weaver Tate was a different fighter, he came to my hometown several times to do some training locally and we all suspected it was to keep him away from some people in Knoxville he shouldn't be around. As for the Weaver fight after he won the title those people became hangers on and it wasn't good, cocaine. Big John told a featherweight we knew Bernard Taylor that he didn't remember anything after getting nailed in the 13th round in his fight with Weaver , in the dressing room afterwards he thought he'd lost a decision. Did Weaver ruin Tate? I think he was just the physical mechanism , success and not knowing how to handle it was the ultimate cause.
Pretty amazing to have seen John training back then. He really did have a lot of talent, but I still have to give Weaver props, he turned out to be a very good fighter (and imo got robbed in that second fight against Dokes). It's just that Mike at times looked more like a sleepwalker than the way Ali used to describe Foreman lol! There's some bizarre apathy going on in the Tate and Tillis fights, and quite few others that stretched out for him. I don't know if he was overpacing himself or what, but it always seemed to me that Mike could have been a lot more active when it counted.
